Federal minister asks labour board to intervene in Canada Post strike

OTTAWA — Federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon says he is “calling a timeout” in the Canada Post strike, and asking the Canada Industrial Relations Board to send about 55,000 employees back to work.

Mackinnon says the Crown corporation and the Canadian Union of Postal Workers are at an impasse after a nearly month-long work stoppage, and negotiations are actually going in the wrong direction.

Read More:

• Tensions rising between Canada Post, union as strike nears four-week mark
• Postal strike delaying delivery of medicine, necessities to remote areas: AFN chief
• ‘Infuriating’: Wait times grow amid Canada Post strike as backlogs, frustration mount

He says if the board agrees the two sides are at an impasse, it has been asked to order union members to return to work until May.

The federal government is establishing an inquiry to determine why the two sides cannot come to an agreement.

Mackinnon says people across the country — especially small businesses, people in remote communities and Indigenous people — have suffered greatly as a result of the strike.

He says he’s asked the board to make a decision quickly and hopes the mail will be delivered again starting next week.

Jeremy Thomas, president of CUPW local 820 in Regina, said he has some serious fears if the government forces them back to work.

“I guess, if we’re going to be ordered back to work, I’m just hoping that we are still going to have a bargained collective agreement and not be forced into binding arbitration with the federal government,” said Thomas.

Thomas said he was shocked with the government’s sudden change in course.
“In the past, the government has said that they were not going to legislate us back to work. So this is something that is news to me. I’m just frankly a little stunned right now,” said Thomas.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 13, 2024.

–with files from 980 CJME’s Roman Hayter